Tropical Fish Discus Forum Questions Answered!

My discus laying eggs but they starting eating their eegs, why?

Reply:
By instinct, the parents will not eat their eggs. They will protect them instead. If the eggs are eaten up then you must find out the reason. Do you breed them in a breeding tank, which has bare bottom? Or they laid eggs in a show tank with many other fish.

If there are other fish in the tank, surely they will be eaten up. You must create an ideal environment for them to breed happily. Positioning of tank is also important. They should not be disturbed.

I have 5 discus in a 55 gallon. The water is perfect and two have laid eggs on a leaf and are guarding it with a lot of care. What do I do? about feeding changing the water. what about the other tank mates? I have a 10 gal. should I get it ready for the fry? I am very pleased to see this happen but I didn’t think it would happen so soon. I got all my discus when they were little 2.5 now they about 4.

Reply:
I know how you feel as I have experience this before.
Anyway congratulation!

You have a 10 gallon tank then make it a maternity ward.
You prepare the 10 gal. tank in this way:
Transfer 10 gal. of water from the main tank to the maternity tank.
Cut the leaf and place it at the bottom of the maternity tank.
Cover the leaf with a wire mesh.
Then transfer the pair to the maternity tank carefully.

Apply Methylene Blue solution to the maternity tank.
You cannot leave the pair together with other fish.
They have to work very hard to guard the eggs.
Some more while the fries are free swimming . . . .

When I have two discus pair and start to clean a site I separate them. They still cleaning the site for about two months and no eggs, and suddenly they start fighting each other. This is the second time that happen to me with different pairs and I think that the third pair that I have, walking on the same road (fighting each other).

Reply:

Do not separate them from the community tank.
Let them breed there.
They will fight others but not between the couple.
Then take the rest out.
They will bo all the rest of work.

What is the minimum breeding size for blue turqouise discus or for discus in general? i have 5 blue turquoise discus and would like to know this because one of them is fighting all the time (he or she is the most well developed fish in the tank)and i’m not sure if it’s just the dominant one or if it’s “breeding time”. the thing is he’s fighting with everyone.

Reply:
The maturity does not count on size.
It takes normally 10 to 12 months to reach maturity.
The red base discus will mature earlier than blue base discus.

He is a bully so he fights everyone.

I am a novice at breeding and have just started setting up a separate breeding tank for my discus pair after several spawning in a show tank has proven to be disastrous. My question is can I feed discus fry with liquid food such as Interpet Ltd’s Liquifry No. 1? Secondly, where can I get brine shrimp eggs to cultivate brine shrimp for discus fry? Thanks for your help.

Reply:
I used Liquifry for the fries almost 30 years ago.
Now it is not easy to get.

You don’t use Liquifry for discus fish.
In fact you don’t have to worry about the fries after free swimming. The fries will get food from their parents. You only need to feed the parents.
The best baby food is newly hatched brine shrimps. If you can feed them with brine shrimps, they will grow fast. Otherwise you can feed them with
daphnia.

The shrimp eggs come in a tin of 435 grams. You can ask the aquarium shop to order for you.

There are shadows in the breeding tanks. How do I position the light and the tanks so that the discus pairs do not eat the fries ? They take care of the fries for a few days and then eat them or some times they eat the eggs on the second or the third day.

Reply:

Discus fish are very sensitive to shadows. They feel scare if shadows fall on them they start jumpy. They eat up the eggs or babies. Actually they want to swallow them into the mouth to protect them then accidentally they . . . . . .

If the location of the tank is not right and you don’t have any other better locations then you can fix an overhead lighting on to your tank. Minimize the activities or movements near the tank.

The discus fish works so hard to choose a location, clean it , lay eggs on it, guide the eggs, fan the eggs almost for 24 hours, the urge of wanting babies is so great, how can they eat their babies. There must be a very strong reason for them to do it. Could it be the human factor?

I am trying to get my discus pair to spawn. Whenever the female lays eggs though, the male follows right behind her eating the eggs as they come out. Some never even make onto the slate. Do you have a remedy that will encourage the male to fertilize them instead of eating them?

Reply:
It is really a big headache to teach the male to fertilize the eggs.
By instinct they know what to do.
If she does not do it, it must be a reason.
Could be she is a female.
Could be she is not mature.

Question 1:
Why is it that when the eggs hatch our parents eat them. Seven days later they lay more eggs and eat them again. This is a continuing cycle. Very frustrating.

Question 2:
I am having some leopard discus and they have grown up well and started breeding about 5 -6 months back. They breed regularly and give about 200 fries on average.But they eat the fries after 2 – 3 days of free swimming.All the pairs are doing the same. Please advise.

Reply:
It could be an environmental factor.
The positioning of the tank is very important.
They should not be disturbed while guarding their eggs.
Otherwise they feel not secured they will eat their eggs.

They are very emotional when taking care of the babies.
They will fight due to the jealously.
As a result they will eat up their eggs.

They were raised up in an artificial method.
The do not have parental love.
They have no experience in nursing the babies.
Because they were not brought in that way.

I have 5 pairs of discus in my tank now and they are all about 2-4 inch. I want to breed them so I am giving them beef heart to
them whenever they wanted to eat..! Is it ok for me to feed them so often..? and is there any way to make them grow faster?

Reply:
If you want to breed the discus, you have to keep the breeding stock.
The breeding stock must be well fed.
Feed them twice a day. Keep them healthy.

When can they spawn?
When they reach the maturity age, they will spawn.
How early or how fast they will spawn?
It depends on the strains.
Normally red base strains will spawn earlier than blue strains.

You can feed them often as long as you keep the water clean.
Please visit our web site guide care.
you will more information.

My LSS pair always fight after spawning. Both are fighting to guard the eggs. So far only one successful hatch but the fry were all eaten after I made a water change. The female lays egg almost every week at the bottom of the tank but all the eggs are eaten after second day.

Pls advise what should I do in order to have successful hatches.

Reply:
The pair always fights after spawning.
It is quite normal but not a good pairing.
The eggs should be covered as soon as the spawning is over.
They can fight wanting to guide the eggs but the eggs are well protected.
It takes 4 days to hatch. During these days, hopefully they have come to the agreement; no fight. Let us take care the larvae.
If they still fight after hatching, then take out one of them.
For the next spawning break them and pair up with others.
Keep it up. You will make it one day.